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Lakers Enjoy A Benchmark Week

Reserves Help Them Become Title Favorites

March 06, 2000|By Sam Smith.

It was quite a week for Phil Jackson and his Los Angeles Lakers. As the Bulls always did when he was their coach, the Lakers won a conference "statement" game, this one over Portland. Jackson said it was the biggest regular-season game he had been involved in. Then the Lakers easily handled the East's top team, Indiana, before cruising past Atlantic Division leader Miami on Sunday.

And the Lakers, now the favorites for the NBA title, did it like the Bulls did. Their bench players, the supporting cast, excelled with all the attention being paid to Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and outscored the Trail Blazers' vaunted bench. Bryant and O'Neal are on pace to set career highs for assists, and Bryant, observers say, is playing under more control and better defensively than anytime in his career. "Patience will win you ballgames," Bryant says now. "Whenever a team makes a run, just try to stay poised, stay within yourself."

Said guard Derek Fisher: "We've really taken on this personality of composure and calm and being poised regardless of the situation."

But what also was clear in the big matchup of the teams with the league's two best records was the question still hanging over the Trail Blazers: Who will take the last shot? They've said they have a team of go-to guys, but Portland had one field goal in the last four minutes--a long three from Scottie Pippen--and looked baffled trying to get good last shots. "Now we're going to hear about the psychological advantage the Lakers have on us the next month and a half or two months until the season is over or until, or if, we play them in the playoffs," said the Blazers' Damon Stoudamire. Count on it for the right to beat someone from the Eastern Conference in five games.

Confession time: Celtics coach Rick Pitino made an astonishing admission last week, admitting, in effect, that he accepted the Celtics' head coaching job with the thought that he would be coaching Tim Duncan. Pitino's statement came after he blasted Boston fans and the city following a loss to Toronto. Pitino ranted that such Celtics greats as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish are "not walking through that door, and if you expect them to they're going to be old and gray."

It was perhaps equally unfortunate for Celtics fans that Red Auerbach wasn't going to be walking through that door either. Pitino has put the Celtics in a desperate situation for years to come with a non-playoff team that is over the salary cap through at least 2003.

Then Pitino acknowledged he had hoped to coach Duncan, who was the No. 1 draft choice after the season the Celtics had the league's worst record and Pitino was hired. But the Spurs, despite having the third-worst record, won the lottery for the first pick.

"I do love Boston," Pitino said. "It's where my two children were born. It's a great city. But if you're sitting on top of a national championship at Kentucky and someone tells you you're not going to get Duncan--and you have a championship-caliber team coming back--I think you'd be pretty astute and say, well, maybe you're a little crazy and maybe you should get examined at Mass General [Hospital] if you're going to walk into that situation. I think that's stating the obvious."

Boston media, which fell under Pitino's spell when he arrived, have been harsh of late and calling for him to leave, though he has a total 10-year contract. "I don't want to leave the NBA," Pitino said. "If it is me that someday moves on, I'll try to find something else. I came here to win an NBA championship. And if it can't be Boston, I've got to try somewhere else."

But insiders close to the Celtics say Pitino has quietly been making inquiries about available major-college coaching jobs.

Carter update: So how good is Vince Carter? Put it this way: Twenty years from now, Washington will be buzzing as Carter is brought in to try to finally get the Wizards into the playoffs.

As for Michael Jordan, he seems to have the opposite in mind, and no doubt with the idea of keeping that No. 1 draft pick the Bulls will get from the Toni Kukoc deal unless it's in the top three in the draft.

Jordan, the Wizards' owner/general manager, has given coach Darrell Walker permission to bench the regulars and get a look at all that young Washington talent. Who, you may ask? Like Chris Whitney, who air-balled a potential tying three-pointer at the buzzer against the 76ers last week while Rod Strickland sat the entire fourth quarter; Gerard King, who also was on the floor in crunch time; Richard Hamilton, and Calvin Booth, who has been on the injured list all season.

Said Walker: "You just take a look at some of these younger players and see what they can do. It's good to know Wes [Unseld] and Michael are in my corner with my decisions about playing time. The situation with this franchise is you just take a look at some of these young players to see what they can do."